Which is a long way saying this: If these and other governments do impose regulations on gaming lootboxes, expect these regulations to impact SL gachas too. In fact, the sale-ability of Linden Dollars for US dollars means that SL gachas are even more like gambling, than other games' lootboxes. As Messner writes:

On the surface there's little difference between gachas and the controversial loot boxes that are appearing in many games like Star Wars Battlefront 2, but there's several key distinctions. For one, these items have tangible value. Each play is always rewarded with an item, and any you win can be resold on Second Life's Marketplace for Lindens and then converted into US dollars. Secondly, the proceeds of these items goes to their respective creators, not Linden Lab (though it does collect a small transaction fee for items sold on the Marketplace). And for those who hate the gambling aspect of gacha games and loot boxes, many creators also offer a buyout price to purchase the set in full.

I'm not a lawyer (but I play one on the Internet), but if any major market regulated lootboxes, I'd suspect Linden Lab would just outright ban gachas from the SL Marketplace before government agents even came calling. Seeing as how huge a part of the SL economy gachas are, the impact would be pretty massive. Which is to say:

If you're in the SL gacha business, keep a close eye on what your country's legislators are doing with lootboxes, and make plans to pivot.

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I have doubts that gatchas will really end up in the lootbox category. But even if it would: It is much easier for LL to react to new policies on lootboxes aka gatcha. There is already a working policy on skill games in place and the gatche machines just have to be changed so that you can win the rares with skill and not just based on pure luck. Then put a gatcha event on a skill games region: problem solved.

Also: I haven't read the article, but even the headline gets it completely wrong. No one is stealing gatcha machienes and boxes. Some thieves are hacking non-copyable items and sell the illegal copies. What is illagelly copied and sold has 100% nothing to do with lootboxes. As soon as an item is out of the "box", it's a normal SL item. Have you ever heard of anyone offering an illegal lootbox to another SL player, Hamlet?

Sensationalism aside, the proposed US regulation is to protect minors and barely applies to Second Life at all.

Let's assume there's many 16-17 year olds wandering around G-rated gacha events and stores with gacha items in Second Life, I'd sooner expect Linden Lab to just end support for 16-17 year olds on the grid before investing money in ways to protect them from gacha.

They will end up in the loot box category and it is gambling and the worst part is people can dupe it all for free and the greed of the creators has gone too far. The best evidence was getting a hold of the scripts in the machines legally from LL and discovering some disturbing things.

Imagine a slot machine which cost $1 door per pull, with a small chance to win a big payout, and a guaranteed consolation prize of 25 cents every time. Would that not be gambling? Because it sure seems like it still would. Also, I bet casinos would get more people addicted with this model.